Conditions and Info
Use of MountainViews is governed by
conditions.General information about the site is
here.Opinions in material here are not necessarily endorsed by MountainViews.
Hillwalking is a risk sport. Information in comments, walks or shared GPS tracks may not be accurate for example as regards safety or access permission. You are responsible for your safety and your permission to walk see
conditions.Credits and list definitions are listed here
Credits

Overlooks Letterkenny. So named from a family in whose possession it was about 60 years since. [OSNB]
Gregory Hill is the 1079th highest place in Ireland.Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/916/?PHPSESSID=835q0iru9qedn156kdsdoedi94

This hill is around 7km east of Letterkenny. Unless someone knows a better way up, I think it is strictly for list tickers. Ticks, ah yes we'll come to that.

There may be other ways up via the forest to the east of the top, however we started from a point on the road at C1155512969A. One way is to go 135m west to a very rough track going southish. However the track is so bad it may be easier simply to pick a path across the rough ground straight for the summit which is only around 540 metres from the road. The ground is extremely unpleasant with high heather, squishy and undrained underfoot and very tiring.

Which brings me to ticks. Despite wearing long trousers and long sleeves two of us got ticks. This is never pleasant however there is the additional risk of Lymes disease, made more likely by the presence of animals such as a herd of goats near the top. Wear long clothes and check yourself carefully after doing this summit. You've been warned. (If you do think you've been infected, get treatment within 72 hours to avoid the nasty incurable side-effects.)

The summit has one of those ground level trig markers that the OSI sometimes used. The view is pretty good in a number of directions. There is a vista of wind turbines to the south of which those shown in the posterised picture are only a small selection, reminding us that Donegal currently has the second largest number of windfarms in the Republic. Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/916/comment/4105/

Your Score: Very useful << >>Average

Tickless on Gregory Hill

by three5four0 18 Apr 2010

We followed the track, mentioned by simon3, which had several sections where you had to leave it unless you wished to be up to your knees in foul smelling mud and animal secretions! After a short distance the track preformed a switchback and improved in quality, well slightly, and brought you within sight of the fence running over the summit area. We followed this a short distance uphill, crossed it and walked over to the highest point, only noticing the ground level trig marker when we got there. We also made it home tick-less!

One good way of checking yourself for ticks, is to have a shower instead of that nice relaxing bath after your day out in the hills. When washing yourself or indeed your partner with shower gel, a tick will feel like a bit of hard skin or a small bramble thorn which will move back and forward as you move your hand over it, feel something like this you need to investigate further! Also, you can now purchase tick removal tweezers, which are a far superior way of removing them. Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/916/comment/4631/

Climbed Gregory Hill on Tues 8th April by parking off road at C1154912974B and walking west along the road, as suggested by simon3, to a gate and old rough track at C1144912893C going SW up the hillside. While I found the track muddy and very boggy in places I had no difficulty in bye-passing these patches and otherwise found the going quite good. Where the path petered out, rather than take the open hillside directly to the top I continued straight ahead along the faint lines of a track (possibly made by a quad) up to a fence. From here I I turned left and followed the fence up to it's high point where I crossed over and walked some 50/60 metres out to the summit marked by a ground level OS trig marker and a few stones, all atop a large peat hag. On my way down I decided to try simon3's "off piste" route and made directly for the track I had come up. I must agree with him that this is very unplesant rough ground indeed with high heather (even in April) and squishy and undrained underfoot. In short I soon abandoned it and made my way across to the track as a matter of some urgency. This short walk can be completed, up and down, in less than forty minutes but take my advice and follow the track and fence both up and down. The 360 degree panorama of the Donegal Hills and beyond make it all worthwhile. Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/916/comment/4635/